Event Location:
Camosun College, Lansdowne Campus – Young Building
3100 Foul Bay Rd
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Abstract:
Today we deal with more and more data. Unfortunately our data quality problems we had in the past are still not really solved. Ok, we have tools like Master Data Services (MDS) and Data Quality Services (DQS), but they are not enough, if you work with large, complex data streams and if you need to operationalize your data curation processes. Here, two languages usable with SQL Server 2017, Python and R, can help you. Also Azure Datalake Analytics (ADLA) has possibilities that you can use. In a demo driven presentation, we show what libraries you can use to build score matrices, to build standardization processes, to do deduplication in ADLA or to build a Data Quality Dashboard in Power BI. There are a lot of fantastic functionalities in the Microsoft Data Platform to curate data. You need just to know how...
Speaker(s): Oliver Engels,
Abstract:
Linux has come to Microsoft! Do you want to gain the knowledge that Oracle DBAs have been using for years to manage their databases on this valuable OS? This session is taught by a multi-platform DBA who specializes in Oracle and SQL Server with almost two decades on Unix/Linux experience. The goal is to give you the most valuable fundamentals and commands that are important to the DBA when managing a database in a Non-Windows environment. We’ll learn: 1. Linux history and concepts. 2. Important differences between systems 3. Crucial commands to get around a. Navigating, searching and managing b. Monitoring, tracing and updating c. Editing and scripting You’ll leave feeling more at ease with Linux and have plenty of content and links to continue the learning after the session!
Speaker(s): Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman,
Abstract:
Do you have a lot of legacy applications using your SQL servers? Do you still have to run older versions of SQL server, because the app vendors are slow to upgrade? Are you rightfully worried that one day, you too will suffer a malicious attack on your precious data? This session covers the essentials on starting to harden your SQL servers so they can have a much better chance of withstanding attacks - such as the currently popular Ransom Ware wave. We will be looking at the basic strategies of keeping your backups truly safe, how to successfully monitor for anomalies, and also how to incrementally implement basic in transit encryption (IPSEC).
Speaker(s): Martin Stoller,
Abstract:
OR, How In-Memory Objects Can Supercharge Your Data And Bring About World Peace OK, so you’ve been reading about, perhaps even testing out some of the ‘in-memory’ objects now available in SQL Server. Some of the claims are exciting, and some seem overly optimistic. And Yet, you want to know, experience more … Perhaps your situation doesn’t really call out for in-memory tables. But you should consider memory-optimized #Temp tables, memory-optimized table variables, and natively compiled stored procedures.It’s true. Using memory-optimized tables requires a little more fore-thought, a bit more care, even a few configuration tweaks. • But what are the real advantages of memory-optimized objects? • What are the memory-optimized objects you can use? • How can you best use memory-optimized objects? In this demo packed session, we will discuss the pros and cons of using memory-optimized objects in ways that will supercharge your SQL Server.
Speaker(s): Arnie Rowland,
Abstract:
In an ideal world, we would not need any error handling, because there would be no errors. But in the real world we need to have error handling in our stored procedures. Error handling in SQL Server is a most confusing topic, because there are such great inconsistencies. But that does not mean that we as database developers can hide our head in the sand. This presentation starts with a horror show of the many different actions SQL Server can take in case of an error. We will then learn how should deal with this - what we should do and what we should not and that with SET XACT_ABORT we get better consistency. We will learn how TRY-CATCH works in SQL Server, and we will get a recipe for how to write CATCH blocks. More generally, we will learn why it pays off to be simple-minded to survive in this maze. The session mainly looks at traditional T-SQL code, but the session ends with a quick look at natively compiled stored procedures, where everything is different.
Speaker(s): Erland Sommarskog,
Abstract:
You may have heard the word "DevOps" and wondered whether it is just another buzzword and/or what it can do for you. In this session I will demystify the concepts of DevOps and we will look at two aspects of DevOps - Continuous Integration Continuous Delivery. Continuous Integration is the practice in which software developers frequently integrate their work with that of other members of the development team.It also involves automating tests around the integrated work Continuous Delivery is the next step after Continuous Integration in the deployment pipeline and is the process of automating the deployment of software to test, staging, and production environments. Database migrations/changes are an area that may not be typically automated or utilise Continuous Delivery. Through the use of a comprehensive live demo to a running database hosted in Azure the audience will learn the benefits and how to implement Continuous Delivery in their database systems deployment pipeline.
Speaker(s): Hamish Watson,
Abstract:
Planning a Power BI solution and want to understand your options and choices? There is much to consider as you discover your data super powers. Like the old story of the Four Blind Men and The Elephant, if you ask four people to describe Power BI; you are likely to get four different answers. Power BI makes it easy to get started but things can get complicated quickly. Should you import your data and use the cloud service?; or keep your data on-premises using the gateway? Should you use DirectQuery or direct access to Analysis Services, multidimensional or tabular, in Azure or on-prem? What is the best method to secure data and control user access? How will users access dashboards reports? Can it be embedded? How do you license all this? Where do we start and how do we get there? From simple desktop and published reports, to enterprise-scale and highly-secured solutions; I will distill all these options into categories and provide a roadmap to conquer each realm; from Mi
Speaker(s): Paul Turley,
Abstract:
Legacy corporate applications that are built in-house can quite often be tightly coupled together. Either you have cross database connections, load jobs, linked servers, multiple copies of data, etc. These design patterns increase your technical debt and application changes will need to carefully consider the impact to the downstream applications. Tightly coupled databases can also make migration/upgrade projects more difficult, especially as you start to looking towards cloud based solutions. What if your organization has started to implement newer design patterns and technologies like microservices, restful web integration or enterprise service buses? Do you have to re-write all of your legacy applications to use these new technologies? This presentation will show a method that was used to update legacy applications to utilize an integration middleware platform without a major re-write of the application. We will then expand on this and show how your SQL Server database could
Speaker(s): Ian Chamberland,
Abstract:
Want to get more out of your SSIS development efforts? The SSIS Productivity Pack is a collection of premium SSIS components which enable an improved SSIS ETL development experience with greater potentials. These SSIS components for connectivity and productivity offer more features and bring new enhancements to SSIS to enable integration scenarios not once possible without custom scripting. In this session we will introduce you to our collection of 150 SSIS components. We will demonstrate some of our most popular offerings including our JSON XML components for integrating with REST APIs, Premium Derived Column with over 225 functions, and unique components such as Duplicate Detector and Diff Detector. In additional to performing advanced transformations you will also find codeless and feature-rich solutions for integrating with virtually any application or database system including leading enterprise applications such as Microsoft SharePoint, Dynamics 365 and more.
Speaker(s): KingswaySoft Inc.,
Abstract:
You've heard about Power BI, and you've seen it, but you haven't yet rolled up your sleeves and got your hands dirty. It looks like it is really easy, but sometimes it helps to have someone step you through it the first time to help you hit the ground running. We will grab various public data sources, join them together in a model and build an interactive pièce de ré·sis·tance on the visual design surface!
Speaker(s): Scott Stauffer,
Abstract:
When you think about backups in your environment, how many servers scripts do you have to manage? Or have you ever needed to get a table back from a large database and didn't want to argue with the storage admins about space for the restore? With Rubrik, we empower you to backup and restore your databases quickly and with ease. Come see how you can quickly protect hundreds of databases with just a few clicks or bring back a database in minutes to satisfy your most demanding executives. With Rubrik, it's not about backing up, it's about going forward!
Speaker(s): Michael Fal,
Abstract:
High availability is an important goal, not just for the database but for all software services. There's increasing pressure to keep those services online 24/7/365. But there's also pressure to deploy improvements frequently. How can developers change the database schema without interrupting the availability? In this session, I introduce and describe the "blue-green" continuous delivery technique - a strategy for replacing system components without down time. I explain what it looks like for database changes without sacrificing availability or performance. I'll also describe how we gradually modified our process in baby steps. Going from maintenance window deployments to fully online deployments.
Speaker(s): Michael J Swart,
Abstract:
According to the Economist magazine, data is the world’s most valuable resource. So, it makes sense that Data Science, Azure Machine Learning, and Analytics are all becoming core pieces to the success of every business. As data professionals, we need to know how these core pieces will affect what we do, and how we can use this suite to help our clients. Microsoft’s Cortana suite is the central hub for learning and implementing each of these core pieces. Using an easy to follow example, I will show the flow from Data to Data Intelligence. The demonstration uses several pieces of the Cortana Suite and brings them together to show how they complement each other. This overview of Cortana Suite will use the various pieces like a puzzle which, when brought together, will form a seamless picture of the whole so that participants can see that the individual pieces were meant to work together.
Speaker(s): Melody Zacharias,
Abstract:
The world of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence has changed drastically over the last years, with the introduction of the Columnstore Indexes, by the most Database Providers (Relational and Non-Relational). This new type of the Indexes (Columnstore) and the way of working with data (Batch Mode), allows to improve performance of the massive workloads in 10s of times. Microsoft has introduced the Columnstore Indexes for the relational engines in their appliance Parallel Data Warehouse, and in SQL Server 2012 the first version became available for the general database market. Since that version, a huge number of changes has been made to ensure the capacity and the performance of the Columnstore Indexes would be on the top. In this introduction session I will show how the Columnstore Indexes achieve this performance, what are their essential internal elements and how can you get the best performance out of them.
Speaker(s): Niko Neugebauer,
Abstract:
At R2C Group we considered numerous approaches to supporting a multi-tenant environment for our legacy SQL database and application suite. After careful analysis and some prototyping we selected a design using the new at the time in MS-SQL 2016 Row Level Security (RLS) capability. This presentation will discuss the analysis that went into the decision then jump right into the implementation. I'll share actual code used and demonstrate how it all works.
Speaker(s): Pat Jesson,
Abstract:
What if we could analyze a single query with thirteen different performance problems? In this session we’ll explore a query, understand and fix all thirteen problems. 1- There is a nonsargable filter 2- An index is missing 3- It is a query optimizer mistake 4- The subquery is unnecessary 5- Query join order is incorrect 6- A filtered statistic is missing 7- Scalar functions are running twice per each row 8- High number of reads on worktable 9- An unknown syntax could be used 10- Memory grant wasn’t enough 11- Distributed query doesn't look good 12- Residual predicates 13- Avoid window spool ondisk
Speaker(s): Fabiano Amorim,
Abstract:
SQL Server 2017 being released brings to the table some new features and improvements in quick succession from SQL Server 2016. In this session we will look at a subset of the new /or improved features that SQL Server 2017 brings to the table. From Analytics, Availability, Configuration and Performance there is something for everyone in this session to introduce you to the latest version of SQL Server.
Speaker(s): Warwick Rudd,
Abstract:
Dynamic SQL is a scripting language that helps you design flexibility into your code. It allows you to design solutions, pass parameters and allows you build a single query on values passed. Dynamic SQL has both pros and cons to it's design, but can also be a helpful tool. This presentation will walk through the steps of building dynamic tables, aggregating data in a pivot format and give you the first steps of writing a Dynamic Query. We will also see how to use Dynamic SQL to build multiple databases across servers, alter a single table in multiple servers and add columns to a table, all through the magic of Dynamic SQL.
Speaker(s): Steven Tidwell,
Abstract:
This session is a compilation of extreme techniques I had to use over time to make very fast operations go a bit faster. It will cover multiple areas (indexing, table design, data access layer, schemas, object naming, datatypes, collations physical data placement and more. All examples given in this session are from real world cases of some of the most demaning workloads in the world.
Speaker(s): Thomas Grohser,
Abstract:
Are you interested in adding artificial intelligence to your apps but you are worried that you do not have the required skills within your organization? Have you heard about Microsoft Cognitive Services? Come join us for this exciting presentation and demo in which you will learn about Microsoft Cognitive Services and see a live demo of Dynamics CRM enhanced with Facial Recognition and Power BI. You will not be dissappointed.
Speaker(s): Anthony Bulk,
Abstract:
In this Session we will look at the theory and use of a Graph Database and its implementation in SQL Server 2017 and CosmosDB The session will cover What is a Graph Database? Why are they useful? What problems do they solve? How are they implemented in SQL Server and Cosmos DB. In particular we will take the Speaker Data from 700+ SQLSaturday events to investigate the Social Network that underlies SQLFamily. Just how connected is everyone in the Microsoft Data Community?
Speaker(s): Patrick Flynn,
Abstract:
Do you want to develop a visually stunning and interactive report to show off the predictive power of your Azure Machine Learning Model? You can, with Power BI and R. In this session, you will learn how to develop a Power BI report that uses an R script to integrate Azure machine learning results into SQL Server and build a visually stunning report. This session will include an overview, live demo as well as a deep dive into the code so that you can learn to apply it yourself.
Speaker(s): Anthony Bulk,
Abstract:
Please join former SQL Server MVP, vExpert and Microsoft Certified Master Argenis Fernandez for an eye-opening session on how the innovative, industry-disruptive tech in the Pure Storage's FlashArray and FlashBlade arrays help your business do everything faster, easier. Faster transactional workloads, analytics, backups and maintenance, all without the pain of having to tweak a thousand knobs to get things to work. Finally storage you can love to use, and be proud to own! Come see what the fuss is all about.
Speaker(s): Argenis Fernandez,
Abstract:
There are many Data Platform offerings available on Azure and new ones are introduced regularly and evolved. In this session we will cover various offering and what scenarios are most suitable for. We will also discuss whether it makes sense to make use of this services or roll your own on-premise or hybrid solutions
Speaker(s): Sepand Gojgini,
Abstract:
Do you want to turn your SQL knowledge into a possible career? This session will show you what options are available to learn about MS SQL Server and make you more knowledgeable about the product This session will show the many different options available to learn MS SQL Server ranging from free events thru to international conferences It will also show how to make any conference more affordable and justify the benefits
Speaker(s): Chris Wood,
Abstract:
Which visuals from the custom visuals free gallery can be the most useful and the prettiest to look at? What are the limitations? When would we choose to create a custom visual? What would be the business case and how should I start? Comparing the free solutions in the PowerBI visuals Gallery. Given in the PowerBI Vancouver user group (https://www.meetup.com/Vancouver-Power-BI-User-Group/events/240243704/), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aigmvBp-uX4t=10s) the session assumes a basic understanding of PowerBI concepts. This session is targeted to business users, admins, BA's and everyone who enjoys the visual power of PowerBI.
Speaker(s): Yana Berkovich,
Abstract:
Today there are microservices and all shapes and colors and one of the most favorite implementation of this pattern is by leveraging a containerized-architecture. There are many companies doing it already and there are a zillion blogs and online resources for this. But since microservice is a pattern, it can actually be implemented using different architectures, like the serverless-architecture. In this Session we’ll see how to implement this pattern using Azure Functions, Microsoft’s implementation of the serverless-architecture.
Speaker(s): Sia Ghassemi,
Abstract:
Are you a DBA or Developer and would like to get started with AzureML the EASY WAY? AzureML isn't just for "data scientists"... Anyone can use it! And after this session you'll be using it too... Disclaimer: Sadly, AzureML still can't predict what's on your girlfriend's mind. Nothing ever will.
Speaker(s): André Melancia,
Abstract:
Most of us have heard that using the NOLOCK hint is not recommended. But why is this? What is it about NOLOCK that sends most DBAs into a tizzy? And how about other hints such as ROWLOCK and RECOMPILE - are they OK to use? Come hear a discussion on why exactly query hints cause problems when used excessively, and watch some demos of NOLOCK craziness in action.
Speaker(s): Rick Lowe,
Abstract:
See how we can use Microsoft Flow with data in Microsoft SQL to power business processes. We will look at examples of how we can move use Flow actions to handle approval processes, and integrate data with multiple cloud systems. We will discuss best practices for Flow, and how we can use the tool at Enterprise Scale.
Speaker(s): Alec McCauley,
Abstract:
In this session you will fall in love for PowerShell! Come to know how the PowerShell works, how to use the .NET Framework, WMI, several PowerShell modules and how to create your own module for administration tasks in mixed and distributed environments. Based in my experience since 2008 and with a previous experience in Linux environments, the PowerShell is highly useful tool for admin SQL Server instances and databases. See you then!
Speaker(s): Rodrigo Crespi,
Abstract:
Since April 2017 another fascinating PaaS in the Microsoft Cloud reached general availability: Azure Analysis Services. But why should you switch from your existing on-premise solution to the cloud or plan your new approach with it? What are the big advantages of Azure Analysis Services? And what actually are the differences to PowerBI? Why is Azure Analysis Services an important step to enhancing the possibilities for BI in the cloud? This session offers answers to your questions and provides insight to support the positioning of Azure Analysis Services in your Business Intelligence strategy.
Speaker(s): Gabi Münster,
Abstract:
The primary goal of a DBA is being able to restore a database when needed. In this session you will learn about data files and transaction logs, RTO and RPO, and how to choose the right recovery model for your environment. You will be able to go back to work on Monday with a better understanding of database backups, and how to automate any database restore task.
Speaker(s): Randolph West,
Abstract:
Organizations are looking at the cloud for modernizing their data landscape. We will take a closer look at the services and paths to modernize with Azure. From Data, Big Data and AI, Microsoft's cloud offers endless storage and compute for any size workload.
Speaker(s): Andrew Boudreau,
Abstract:
In today's fast-paced world, businesses require up to the minute information to support critical decisions. Traditional business intelligence solutions, however, are not able to keep up with this demand and a new approach is required. Azure Stream Analytics is a real-time event processing engine capable of analyzing millions of events every second. During this session, you will learn some of the key concepts needed to work with streaming data before stepping through an end-to-end streaming data solution.
Speaker(s): Michael Johnson,
Abstract:
Azure Cosmos DB is Microsoft's globally distributed, multi-model database. With the click of a button, Azure Cosmos DB enables you to elastically and independently scale throughput and storage across any number of Azure's geographic regions. It offers throughput, latency, availability, and consistency guarantees with comprehensive service level agreements (SLAs), something no other database service can offer. In this session, we'll get an overview of Azure Cosmos DB. And we'll see live demos of Cosmos DB in action, including its multi-model capabilities using MongoDB and Gremlin APIs.
Speaker(s): Anthony Chu,
Abstract:
In this session German Data Platform MVP Frank Geisler explains how the container technology Docker can be used to execute a SQL Server in a container environment and how this could be benificial for Development Teams using SQL Server Data Tools and TFS.
Speaker(s): Frank Geisler,
Abstract:
2 text transaction files, a pivoted excel budget file, 20 Power Queries, 6 dimensional tables, and one interactive Excel dashboard = mind blowing awesomeness in under 60 minutes. But while the analysis is important, the real value in the refresh. Can your model pull in another 22 text files and next year's budgets in less than a minute? This model can. Come and see how Excel 2016 gives us the ability to not only rapidly create business intelligence, but also allows us to build engaging and interactive models that can be quickly updated and shared via Power BI.
Speaker(s): Ken Puls,
Abstract:
How is our work going to evolve in the next five years? Join Richard Campbell as he takes you on a journey of looking into the past to inform the future - how new technologies are evolving and how they will impact how we write, operate, manage and measure software. Software may be eating the world, but we're the farmers, cooks and servers that bring it to the table - what can we expect in the next few years?
Speaker(s): Richard Campbell,
Abstract:
A look at the intersection of hardware, software, and internet. See what it takes to bring your next workshop project to life including stories about the success and failures of creating a Smart Mirror. We will take a look into hardware including that from the hardware store and the software required to make the magic happen.
Speaker(s): Andrew Cook,
This is a list of speakers from the XML Guidebook records. The details and URLs were valid at the time of the event.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottstauffer
Contact: http://scottstauffer.ca
Scott Stauffer (@SQLSocialite) is very PASSionate about data and enjoys meeting with like-minded data geeks. He started the Vancouver PASS Chapter in 2004. In 2008, Scott was recognized by Microsoft with a SQL Server MVP award. In 2009, Scott started a PASS BI Chapter in Vancouver, and was also at one time the PASS Regional Chapter Mentor for Canada. For over 10 years he has been an independent consultant working with clients to solve their data woes and extract insight from their business data.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigocrespi/
Contact: http://sqlcrespi.com
Rodrigo Crespi is Microsoft Data Platform MVP, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, MCIT, MCDBA and MCP in SQL Server. Also, he has certifications in .NET Framework, Dynamics CRM, among others. He started working with SQL Server on version 6.5 as a developer and then opted for working especially with database administration. Nowadays he is a partner in CrespiDB – Soluções em Plataformas de Dados and university professor at Uniftec – Caxias do Sul. Author of many published articles on websites and magazines about SQL Server and software engineering, he runs a YouTube channel named SQLCrespi and a personal blog called SQLCrespi, too. Rodrigo is the founder of SQL Server RS PASS Chapter in Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil and a Chapter Leader
LinkedIn: https://nz.linkedin.com/in/hamishwatson8
Contact: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/the-hybrid-dbas-blog/
Hamish Watson is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and VMware Expert with a passion for efficient database and application deployment using DevOps methodologies. He has 20+ years of IT experience in managing and deploying large scale databases on SQL Server technologies. He has been managing SQL Server since SQL Server 2000, and pragmatic approaches to delivering business value to clients is his career passion. Educating and helping others learn is a driver for Hamish. He is a Director-At-Large on the PASS Board, international speaker, and a repeat guest lecturer at a local university.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellynpotvin
Contact: http://dbakevlar.com
Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman is a member of the Oak Table Network and an Idera ACE and Oracle ACE Director alumnus. She is a Data Platform Architect in Power BI with AI in the EdTech group at Microsoft. Kellyn is known for her extensive work with multi-database platforms, DevOps, cloud migrations, virtualization, visualizations, scripting, environment optimization tuning, automation, and architecture design. Kellyn has spoken at numerous technical conferences for Oracle, Big Data, DevOps, testing, and SQL Server. Her blog (http://dbakevlar.com) and social media activity under her handle, DBAKevlar, is well respected for her insight and content.
LinkedIn: http://LinkedIn.COM/in/AndreMelancia
Contact: http://Andy.PT
Owner / Principal Consultant at LunarCat.PT Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) focusing on SQL Server, Azure, IoT and Security. 19+ years' fun developing information and multimedia systems, DBA, project and IT management. Data Community Portugal, IT Pro Portugal and PowerShell Portugal communities organiser. IPv6 Portugal, DNSSec Portugal and Windows Development Portugal online communities moderator. Actively volunteering, organising, speaking or just participating at community meetings and events around the world. Proud uncle and food devouring expert, with dangerous рuϧϧy cat as companion. Go to http://Andy.PT and you'll know the same as the NSA...
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-jesson-8b44a83
Pat is Technical Architect at R2C Group, an ad agency in Portland, Oregon that uses custom applications and a reasonably large SQL database to manage the business of buying and evaluating advertising performance. About a year ago they refactored their database and applications so that multiple companies can share the same data. After evaluating several strategies they went with Row Level Security which is available on MS-SQL 2016 This presentation will use the project as a case study. He’ll show us how they did it and what challenges they had. He will show actual code snippets and demonstrate the results.
Contact: http://sqllensman.com/blog/
Patrick Flynn is a Senior Database Administrator with 10 years experience in large 24 x 7 enterprise environments. He is a certified master for SQL Server and a regular attendee of the PASS Summit. Has presented at SQLSaturday events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland, Edmonton and Calgary, Oslo and Cambridge
Softwarearchitect and developer. He is a Microsoft Azure MVP and an expert in Xamarin. Since three years he co-organizes the .NET User Group Hamburg together with 3 friends from Hamburg’s developer-community and leads presentations and workshop throughout germany and canada and on community conferences. On GitHub you can find all the sheets and code samples from his presentations and workshops.
Alec McCauley has an extensive background in graphic design, web development, systems management, and Office 365 / SharePoint development and administration. Prior to joining itgroove, Alec’s role was as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for a large independent High School in Calgary, Alberta. His background in delivering large scale projects is a testament to his strong leadership and project management skills, delivering solutions that meet clients’ needs. Alec’s focus at itgroove is overseeing projects and client work, ensuring that we bring our very best to everything we do. He specializes in designing, developing and implementing custom solutions with the Microsoft suite of Enterprise Products.
LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/pub/warwick-rudd/0/956/718
Contact: http://www.sqlmastersconsulting.com.au/Blog
Warwick Rudd is a Microsoft Certified Master – SQL Server 2008 and Principal Consultant at SQL Master Consulting. He is a frequent speaker at local SQL Server User Groups and SQLSaturday events in Australia. When not playing with the SQL stack, Warwick likes to get away to the cold and spend time snowboarding.
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/rabryst
Contact: https://bornsql.ca/blog/
Randolph West (they / them), founder of Born SQL, is an independent IT consultant, speaker, Calgary PASS user group leader, Microsoft Data Platform MVP, and lead author of “SQL Server 2019 Administration Inside Out”. Randolph specialises in SQL Server performance tuning, disaster recovery, and migrations from really old versions, with an emphasis on implementing best practices. Randolph has presented at PASS Summit, SQLBits, SQL Saturdays, and user groups. You can also find Randolph acting and directing on screen or the stage, or annoying people on Twitter. Do not trust Randolph around chocolate.
Contact: http://MichaelJSwart.com
Michael J Swart is a passionate database professional and blogger. Working in Kitchener, Ontario, he has developed software for the past 20 years and has focused on database development and software architecture for the past 10 years. He enjoys speaking about anything data related, contributing to community projects, and has been awarded Microsoft's MVP since 2011.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=4839367
Contact: http://www.gdsbi.de
Frank Geisler is owner and CEO of GDS Business Intelligence GmbH. He is SQL Server MVP, MCT, MCSE – Business Intelligence, MCSE – Data Plattform and MCSE - Azure Solutions Architect. In his Job he is building Business Intelligence Systems based on Microsoft Technology, mainly on SQL Server and SharePoint.
Contact: http://www.ssis-components.net
Oliver Engels is CEO of oh22data AG, a Microsoft Gold Partner in Germany specializing in CRM and BI. His special interests are Azure, Data Governance and Integration, Visualisation Tools like SSRS, Power BI, Tableau, R, and SharePoint. He has worked with SQL Server since version 6.5 and is a founder and Board member of PASS Germany, a PASS Regional Mentor, and runs the Frankfurt PASS Local Group. For more than seven years he is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and a Microsoft pTSP.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnie
Contact: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/arnie_rowland/
Arnie long ago realized that most issues between Developer and DBA comes from incomplete communication and a misunderstanding of each other's objectives. He is a frequent Trainer and Mentor for Developers and DBAs, bringing both sets of skills to better communicate with teams to create a working solution. For over a decade, Arnie has been a SQL Server MVP, Certified Trainer, technical editor for several publishers, including MOC, and has served as University and Community College adjunct faculty. Clients include Fortune 500 and Multi-Nationals, Federal and State agencies, Foreign governments, and local enterprises –both public and private.
LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/melodyzacharias
Contact: http://sqlmelody.com
Melody is the Sr. Microsoft Solutions Manager at Pure and has been in love with data since 1991. She has been sharing her passion with the community in technical sessions and blogs since 2014. She has been a Microsoft MVP since 2016, including winning Rookie of the year for Canada that year. This last year, she was elected to the board of directors for PASS.org, the professional association for SQL Server and was awarded Regional Director by Microsoft. She has co-authored 3 books, including, SQL Server 2019 Administration inside out by Microsoft Press.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanaberkovich/
Contact: http://yanaberkovich.com
A people-oriented professional, aspiring Product Manager, with 11 years of process analysis, building solutions, customization, developing, managing and training experience. Working with Power Bi, Oracle SQL and SQL server for the past few years. Data enthusiast with international experience in many companies as a BA, Team Lead and everything SharePoint Office 365.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pturley
Contact: http://www.sqlserverbiblog.com
Paul is a Principal Consultant for Pragmatic Works, a Mentor and Microsoft Data Platform MVP. He consults, writes, speaks, teaches blogs about business intelligence and reporting solutions. He works with companies around the world to model data, visualize and deliver critical information to make informed business decisions; using the Microsoft data platform and business analytics tools. He is a Director of the Oregon Data Community PASS chapter user group, the author and lead author of Professional SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and 14 other titles from Wrox Microsoft Press. He holds several certifications including MCSE for the Data Platform and BI.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuanthony/
Contact: https://anthonychu.ca
Anthony Chu is a Cloud Developer Advocate at Microsoft. He builds cloud applications in ASP.NET and Node.js, and is currently focused on Azure Functions, Cosmos DB, Kubernetes, and Windows containers.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janthonybulk/
• Has a long proven track record of success in the IT industry. • Influences a multi-million dollar practice area with over 20 people internally • Register p-seller with MS • Setup and runs the Victoria Power BI user group (80+ people) • Presents in external facing Sierra webinars once a quarter • Presented at //BUILD 2017 on deep learning • Presented at Power BI World Tour 2017 on Power BI and Azure Machine Learning • Has a specialization and focus on Cortana Analytics Suite, SQL Server and Power BI • Has worked on many different projects in both the private and public sector • Has successfully delivered projects of all different sizes from $2K - $3M
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rick-lowe/a/228/441/
Contact: http://dataflowe.wordpress.com/
Rick is a Microsoft Certified Master with more than 20 years of SQL Server experience in a variety of roles. He currently lives in Washington state and works as an independent consultant providing remote performance DBA and performance tuning services for clients in the USA and Canada. His first exposure to SQL Server was as a database developer, but over time he became more and more interested in how the database engine operated... eventually specializing more on performance issues than code. Rick will work with all things relational, but most enjoys helping smaller companies get better performance from MSSQL, as well as smoothing over relationships between DBA and development teams.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabimuenster/
Gabi Münster is working as a Business Intelligence consultant and team lead and brings in her experience with SQL Server, data warehousing, relational and multidimensional database design and implementation, report and dashboard design, and Master Data Services, as well as project management into the community as a regional PASS Local Group lead. She is also passionate about motivating other women to start a technical career and therefore initiates and supports "Women in Technology" events. Apart from SQLSaturdays, she also spoke at SQLBits, SQL Nexus, Tuga IT, and 2015's and 2017's PASS Summit. In October 2017 Gabi received her first Data Platform MVP award.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janthonybulk/
• Has a long proven track record of success in the IT industry. • Influences a multi-million dollar practice area with over 20 people internally • Register p-seller with MS • Setup and runs the Victoria Power BI user group (80+ people) • Presents in external facing Sierra webinars once a quarter • Presented at //BUILD 2017 on deep learning • Presented at Power BI World Tour 2017 on Power BI and Azure Machine Learning • Has a specialization and focus on Cortana Analytics Suite, SQL Server and Power BI • Has worked on many different projects in both the private and public sector • Has successfully delivered projects of all different sizes from $2K - $3M
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgrohser/
Thomas Grohser has spent most of the past 26+ years exploring the deeper inner workings of SQL Server and its features while working for entertainment, pharmaceutical, and financial services industries. His primary focus is to architect, plan, build, and operate reliable, highly available, secure, and scalable infrastructures for SQL Server. Over the years he has managed thousands of SQL Server instances, processing trillions of rows, taking up petabytes of storage. Thomas has been a Microsoft Data Platform MVP for 9 years and has spoken regularly at conferences, SQLSaturdays, and user groups for 12 years.
He has been an MS SQL DBA since 1997 starting with 6.5. Worked with 7/2000/2005/2008/2008R2/2012/2014/2016 and 2019 during those 23 years. He has attended 14 Pass Summits, 3 SQLCruises and 2 SQLConnections conferences. He has been the Communications Director for EDMPASS chapter since its inception in 2008. Spoken at 6 SQL Saturdays including the keynote at SQL Saturday 710 Edmonton in 2018. Passionate about SQL and educating himself to know more about it. He has migrated systems while always attempting to take advantage of any new features from 7.0 all the way to 2014 and 2016 and now 2019 He has learned and implemented lots of best practices from SQL Server MVPs.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabianoamorim/
Contact: http:\\blogfabiano.com
Fabiano Amorim is a Data Platform MVP that loves to conquer complex, challenging problems—especially ones that others aren’t able to solve. He first became interested in technology when his older brother would bring him to his work meetings at the age of 14. With over a decade of experience, Fabiano is well known in the database community for his performance tuning abilities. When he isn’t working, he loves to read and spend time with his family.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsstoller/
Working on Microsoft SQL Server since v4, specializing in DevOps DBA tasks, solutioning complex ETL problems, and hardening systems to withstand modern malicious attacks.
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/kenpuls
Contact: https://www.excelguru.ca/blog
Ken Puls, FCPA, FCMA is a Chartered Professional Accountant, author, and trainer. With over 20 years of experience as a corporate controller and business owner, he has been exposed to many business systems, databases, and analysis tools, leading to a career of building Excel and Power BI-driven applications to harness data and turn it into management information. A Microsoft Excel/Data Platform MVP since 2006 and author of 2 books, Ken has also been recognized as a Fellow of CPA Canada.
A leading provider of high-performance data integration solutions using SSIS as the ETL platform. Organizations from more than 75 countries rely on our solutions to drive their business data efficiency. Our primary mission is to help our customers to be successful in their business by providing them with quality software products and innovative integration solutions at a competitive price.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgojgini/
Product Director at Datateam Services, 10+ years of experience designing data warehouse model and ETL engines used globally. Had a chance of working on world biggest relational Data Warehouse at Amazon managing 5+ PetaByte of data with growth 7+ TeraByte daily. Seeking to apply best software development practices to ETL development and streamlining development process.
LinkedIn: http://pt.linkedin.com/in/webcaravela/
Contact: http://www.nikoport.com
Niko Neugebauer is a Data Platform Consultant. A SQL Server MVP with over 20 years of experience in IT, he is passionate about the Microsoft Data Platform and community. Founder of the Portuguese SQL Server User Group and the main organizer of the first SQLSaturday event outside of North America (#78 Portugal), Niko speaks regularly at events such as PASS Summit, SQLRally, SQLBits, and SQLSaturday events around the world. Niko loves sharing information and knowledge and has authored over 130 blog posts on Columnstore Indexes, and regularly contributes to the open-sourced CISL library focused on Columnstore Indexes.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/argenis
Contact: http://blog.purestorage.com/author/argenisfernandez/
Argenis is a Principal Architect at Pure Storage. He works with customers around the world to make sure they don’t have to worry much about their infrastructure for Data. He is a former Data Platform MVP, former VMware vExpert, Microsoft Certified Master, and more recently worked in the Microsoft Azure Data/SQL Server engineering team as a Principal PM in the Tiger team.
Contact: http://www.sommarskog.se
Erland Sommarskog is an independent consultant based in Stockholm, working with SQL Server since 1991. He was first awarded SQL Server MVP in 2001, and has been re-awarded every year since. His focus is on systems development with the SQL Server Database Engine and his passion is to help people to write better SQL Server applications.
LinkedIn: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/michael-johnson/22/73/735
Contact: http://michaeladrianjohnson.com/
Michael Johnson is a Microsoft data platform MVP and leader of the Johannesburg SQL User Group and Business Analytics Virtual Group. He works as an Independent Business Intelligence Consultant and regularly presents at local user groups, SQL Saturdays and PASS Virtual Chapters.
A long time Database guy and data geek. With over 20 years experience on the Microsoft Data Platform I have morphed from DBA to BI Architect to Data Wrangler to data scientist. I have left my DBA shell far behind and now enjoy the endless possibility of new tools and services beyond the Database box. Advanced analytics and machine learning are my new passion and love to talk data with everybody.
Contact: http://codingwithcookie.com
Andrew is a software development consultant in Seattle, WA focusing on development on the Microsoft Stack including Azure and Xamarin. Andrew is a Xamarin Certified Developer, Microsoft Professional and Advanced Care Paramedic.
LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/ianachamberland
Ian has been working as a SQL Server Database Administrator since 2010. He focuses on new implementations of SQL Server environments and improving existing ones. He enjoys working with HA/DR technologies, ensuring performance requirements are met and automating tasks with PowerShell.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfal/
Contact: http://mikefal.net
Mike is a specialist in data management technologies. As a community advocate, public speaker, and blogger, Mike is a practicing thought leader for data and automation. He is passionate about DevOps and data, building platforms to optimize, protect, and use data efficiently. Since 1999, Mike has been working in the database field, focusing primarily on SQL Server and specializes in automating data solutions to improve the reliability and efficiency of his environments. He has been caught playing trombone in public on more than one occasion.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sqlcodemonkey
Contact: https://www.sqlcodemonkey.com
I am currently the Technical Lead for Client custom projects. I have been writing SQL Code starting in SQL 7. Over the years I have put on many hats, DBA, Developer, Web Developer, C#, VB.NET, Cold Fusion and Java. But at the end of the day, I prefer to write SQL. Local Chapter Leader for the South Montgomery County SQL Server User Group in Montgomery County, Texas.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/richjcampbell
Richard Campbell wrote his first line of code in 1977. His career has spanned the computing industry both on the hardware and software sides, development and operations. He was a co-founder of Strangeloop Networks, acquired by Radware in 2013 and was on the board of Telerik which was acquired by Progress Software in 2014. Today he is a consultant and advisor to a number of successful technology firms and is the founder and chairman of Humanitarian Toolbox (www.htbox.org), a charity that builds open source software for disaster relief. Richard is also the host of two podcasts: .NET Rocks! (www.dotnetrocks.com) which publishes two shows a week to .NET developers and RunAs Radio (www.runasradio.com) which is a weekly show for IT Pros.
The following is a list of sponsors that helped fund the event.